Kalk Dosing Pump/System

[Hobster]

Well after manually dosing small amounts of lime I am a ready to automate! From your articles, you use a Reef Filler pump. How loud is that and is it a diaphram pump? Is there much maintance? Do you control it by a timer or just float switches. A switch in both the sump or tank and the Kalk container?

I am trying to compare the Reef Filler to say the Liter Meter or other peristaltic pumps. Do they hold up under the Kalk solution?.

Any advice or suggestions from folks appreciated. What are others using. ?
Thanks:)

[Bojan]

One week ago i started to dose kalkwaser again , because Ph in my tank is too low.

I use SP3000 (http://www.aqua-medic.com/products/pumps/dosingsp3000.shtml) peristaltic pump to pump water from closed container


I also tested air pump Rena 100 for that task. Closed container have two holes with attached pipes. First plastic pipe (5mm diameter) have to be such long that it stretch to the bottom of the container. Second pipe (also 5mm diameter) can be shorter. Air pump is connected to second pipe and pump air in the container. Limewater will flow out from first pipe, because of the pressure in the container.

That system work well , if top water level in container is lower than pumping level of limewater (end of plastic tube connected to first pipe). It is better that container is made from hard plastic or other non flexible material.

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

How loud is that and is it a diaphram pump?

Yes, and it is very loud. Too loud to be in a living room. I have mine in the basement. I control it with a float switch in my sump.

[Bojan]

Randy is this Reef Filter, diaphram pump acctually air pump ?

[Hobster]

Originally posted by Randy Holmes-Farley
How loud is that and is it a diaphram pump?

Yes, and it is very loud. Too loud to be in a living room. I have mine in the basement. I control it with a float switch in my sump.

If I had that pump in the next room (other side of an interior drywall frame wall) do you think I would still hear it? Is there a lot of maintance to that pump?

[Hobster]

Bojan,

Thanks, I looked at the sp3000 and the price is right:D however it is fixed at .8gph which would be almost my daily amount of replacement. I would have to pump all the lime within 1-2 hrs. Unless it was on a timer to come on and off several times. I am trying to find a pump that will deliver very small amounts over a long time frame.

[Bojan]

Originally posted by Hobster
Bojan,

Thanks, I looked at the sp3000 and the price is right:D however it is fixed at .8gph which would be almost my daily amount of replacement. I would have to pump all the lime within 1-2 hrs. Unless it was on a timer to come on and off several times. I am trying to find a pump that will deliver very small amounts over a long time frame.

It is very difficult to find peristaltic pump which match exacty daily evaporation rate. According to my opinion SP3000 is ideal pump for 1 galon per day. Float switch have to be used to controll pump to dose right amount of water. This is not expensive and very usefull system.

Life- cycle of peristaltic pump depends on hours in operation. If you will operate peristaltic pump 24 hours per day , life- cycle of your peristaltic pump will be very short.

0.8 gph is perfect for limewater dosing.

[jfinch]

Hobster, like Randy said... diaphragm pumps are very nice at dosing stuff, but I couldn't imagine having one in my house. Click-click... click-click.

How handy are you at DIY? I'm using a DIY peristaltic pump and controller pictured here:

http://www.xmission.com/~jfinch/kalkfront.jpg http://www.xmission.com/~jfinch/kalkback.jpg

You could use that sp3000 pump and wire it through an interval timer like I did in the pictured pump. This allows me to pump anywhere from about 100 ml to 4 gal per day. It's not really a continuous flow, it cycles on and off, but it's worked great for me. The parts (interval relay, switches and potentiometer) will run you about $30 if I remember correctly.

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Randy is this Reef Filter, diaphram pump acctually air pump ?

No. It slowly pumps liquid (or air).

[Hobster]

I am Bob V, Norm A and Tim Taylor all rolled into one handy guy:D
On this I think I'd rather be Ron Popell and set it and forget it! Maybe spring for the LiterMeter$$$:cool:
Thanks

[thackray]

The Litermeter has two drawbacks:

1) Mine is loud. However, the one’s they make now may be quieter. I posted in their competitor’s thread (can’t remember the competitor’s name but they advertise here). A few days later a Litermeter guy emailed me and offered to do something to quiet my Litermeter. I’ll respond to him one of these days.

2) You can calibrate for a flow level (duty cycle variation) but you can’t set it for nighttime only operation. For something that obviously has a microprocessor that seems like an oversight in the design.

If you don’t want to use a float switch, I’d put something like the SP3000 on a duty cycle timer that could be adjusted for say 5 seconds on 55 seconds off and put that inside a twenty four hour timer for nighttime only operation.

Phil

[thackray]

Hobster,

Check out Reef Dosing Pumps in vendor forum. (Select "all posts from the beginning")

Phil

[Hobster]

Phil,

Thanks for the info. What is a "duty cycle timer"? I then plug that into a regular timer?

I agree about the LiterMeter. I called them to check on that and there is no timer, they said to plug it into a regular timer. For $300 you would think it would have one. It cycles 150 times per 24 hours.

I sent a e mail to Reef dosing.com. They have some refurbished ones that are my kind of price:D

[thackray]

Hobster,

For $300 you would think it would have one. Or two! :p

We use timer modules at work to cycle power supplies off and on for “burn-in� testing. These would be too expensive for this application.

The hydroponic gardening supply houses sell “mister� controllers that have adjustable short on times (seconds) and adjustable off times of seconds to minutes. They basically switch the line power to whatever is “downstream� in this case the kalkwasser pump. I have some links to these sites at work I’ll check them out tomorrow.

I wonder if you can use smaller diameter tubing with the SP3000. That would reduce the flow rate and allow longer on/off periods.

Phil

[Hobster]

Do you think this is correct and will work?

If the pump max is .8 gal/hr:
3840 x .8=3072ml/hr

3072/8hr=384ml/hr

put it on a digital timer and run it about 7-8 min for 8 hrs at night.

I think my digital timers can have 8 or 10 programs, so each time it comes on it will deliver around 384 ml or 13 oz for a total of about 1 gal/day.?:)

[thackray]

Marine Depot has this timer for $18.00

http://www.marinedepot.com/aquarium_controllers_wexcel_expert_digital_timer_tmr01.asp?CartId=

This device could provide eight on/off sequences each day. You could use smaller tubing in the peristaltic pump to limit the flow rate then fine tune the total amount of kalkwasser delivered by adjusting the on/off periods.

Phil

[Donw]

You can have a perfect top-off system for less than $30. I use a aqualifter pump and a float switch from floatswitches.com. Open up the aqualifter cut one of the wires and solder on the wires to the float switch. Put a "t" in the outlet hose just above the water level in your sump as a vac break and your set.
Mine has worked flawlessly with kalk for a longtime and is silent.

Hope it helps
Don

[thackray]

Don,

That floatswitches.com link transfers me to omega.com and they don't sell float switches.

Phil

[Hobster]

Phil,

Yes, that's the one I have. Should work, ya think?

Don,

Thanks for the idea. The pump idea sounds good. I'd be a little leary of 110V ac direct wired to a float in the tank:worried: Hooked to something like a ultralife switch maybe.

[Donw]

Originally posted by thackray
Don,

That floatswitches.com link transfers me to omega.com and they don't sell float switches.

Phil

Very sorry, its .net

Don

[Donw]

Originally posted by Hobster
Phil,

Yes, that's the one I have. Should work, ya think?

Don,

Thanks for the idea. The pump idea sounds good. I'd be a little leary of 110V ac direct wired to a float in the tank:worried: Hooked to something like a ultralife switch maybe.

Just as safe as a power head or heater. You could add a fuse for additional safety. The aqualifter draws so little power the switch should last forever.

Don

[thackray]

Don,

Now that link works!

In a small tank like mine (75 gallon with hang on the back refugium) I could not handle the kalkwasser flow rate from something like an aqualifter pump (3.5gallons per hour). The local pH would go too high. I think the people who have a sump (like Randy) can use the float switch/medium flow rate pump combinations.

For smaller tanks without sumps the peristaltic pumps on timers route is safer I believe. I use the Litermeter III on this current tank.

Our next tank is a 150 gallon “cube� that will have a sump and refugium in the basement below. Then I could use the float switch/pump combination.

Hobster, Bojan,

Can you put smaller tubing in the SP3000?

Phil